On
October 19, 2005, Rep. Curt Weldon delivered a speech on the floor
of the U.S. House of Representatives further elucidating about Project
Able Danger (AD). In the speech, he indicated that AD not only identified
Al Qaeda members by January and February 2000, but also identified
the Brooklyn cell to which Mohamed Atta would be linked in September
2000. In addition to Atta, AD also identified 3 other terrorists in
leadership roles in the 9-11 attacks. On Sunday, October 16, former
FBI director Louis Freeh said on national television that if he had
that information AD had developed, it could have allowed the FBI to
prevent the hijackings on 9-11. Rep. Weldon further revealed that
AD had also identified the threat to the USS Cole two weeks before
that ship was attacked, and two days before that attack "were screaming
not to let the USS Cole come into the harbor at Yemen because they
knew something was about to happen."

Since
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer came forward as a member of AD to tell what
he knew, he has been under attack by officials at the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA), including seeking a permanent removal of his pay and
health care benefits for him and his children. Most outrageous, a
Defense Department (DoD) employee told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Shaffer
was having an affair with one of Rep. Weldon's employees, but Weldon
retorted that Shaffer doesn't even know his staff.

According
to Rep. Weldon, the deputy director of DIA almost a year before 9-11
was in a meeting with Lt. Col. Shaffer, in which the deputy director
was shown a disk with information on it about Al Qaeda and Atta, and
said "You cannot show me that. I don't want to see it. It might contain
information I cannot look at." The deputy director now denies he was
at that meeting, but Rep. Weldon says there are witnesses who will
verify Shaffer's account of it. The Congressman did not mention the
deputy director's name, but I have learned it's William Huntington.

Rep.
Weldon offered an example of the "stupidity" of DIA by pointing out
that 2 weeks after DIA sent a letter to Shaffer's attorney, Mark Zaid,
saying Shaffer couldn't receive any classified information, DIA sent
him 7 packages of information containing 5 classified memos. Rep.
Weldon then said, "I want DIA prosecuted for the five felonies they
committed in sending classified documents to a person that 2 weeks
earlier they said was incapable of receiving classified information."

Making
a surprise announcement, Rep. Weldon revealed that he had found another
official with impeccable credentials who had a leadership position
with AD and told him on October 18 in his office "that there is a
separate cache of information collected from over 20 Federal agencies
in 1999 and 2000 on Able Danger that still may exist," despite the
Pentagon's story that all the material was destroyed.

The
Congressman also related that the official informed him that there
was no 90-day requirement as was testified before the Senate Judiciary
Committee on September 21. The official indicated that on a regular
basis they kept information from AD data mining for many months, and
that a DoD lawyer named Schiffren told him "do not worry about it,
just fill out a document, sign your name that you need it, put it
in the box, and you can keep it as long as you want." To stress the
importance of something being "desperately wrong" with what DIA and
DoD has been telling us, Rep. Weldon recounted that President Nixon
resigned as a result of a 3rd-rate burglary in which no one was killed,
but 9-11 resulted in the deaths of 3000 people. He noted with emotion:
"This is an attempt to prevent the American people from knowing the
facts about how we could have prevented 9-11 and people are covering
it up today." He noted that Senator Charles Grassley had also characterized
what was happening as a "cover-up."

Rep.
Weldon concluded by announcing that "We have from Republicans to Democrats,
left to right, conservative to liberals (who believe) what is happening
here is unacceptable. It is unimaginable. It is un-American." And
he called for "a full, independent investigation (of the whole matter)
by the Inspector General of the Pentagon, (because) DIA cannot investigate
itself. It does not have the integrity to do that."

Author's
Note: Project Able Danger was designed to identify Al Qaeda terrorists
around the world, and President Bush has indicated the war in Iraq
is part of the global war on terror. A referendum on the proposed
Iraq Constitution was held about a week ago, but final results are
not yet available. There have been reports of election fraud, and
Martha Raddatz of ABC News said on PBS's "Washington Week in Review"
(October 21) that she witnessed a man stuffing 7 ballots marked "Yes"
on the Constitution in a ballot box. If the Sunnis are not convinced
that the Constitution was legitimately approved, their tacit support
for the insurgency will continue.

This
is important because this is the first war in which it doesn't matter
how smart, strong, or well-trained an American soldier is as far as
it effects his survival. In the guerrilla war of Vietnam, at least
training made a difference. But in Iraq, a high level of casualties
come from roadside bombs. Therefore, what determines a soldier's survival
might come down to simply what vehicle he is riding in down what road
at what time. And the enemy can be anyone of almost any age simply
pushing a button some distance away. This type of insurgency can go
on indefinitely and probably will if the Sunnis believe the Constitution
is unfair to them or was illegitimately approved.

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This
is a Constitution which provides that "No law that contradicts the
established provisions of Islam may be established." And with a Shiite
majority (already aligning with the radical mullahs in Iran) that
word "Islam" will be understood as Shiite sectarian Islamic law, under
which women could have fewer opportunities than under Saddam Hussein.
The founders of the U.S. rejected "democracy" as being "mobocracy,"
and our own U.S. Constitution was originally rejected until a Bill
of Rights was added to protect those with minority views from what
was called the "tyranny of the majority."

Dennis Laurence Cuddy, historian and political
analyst, received a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill (major in American History, minor in political science). Dr. Cuddy
has taught at the university level, has been a political and economic
risk analyst for an international consulting firm, and has been a Senior
Associate with the U.S. Department of Education.

Cuddy has also testified before members of Congress
on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Cuddy has authored or
edited twenty books and booklets, and has written hundreds of articles
appearing in newspapers around the nation, including The Washington Post,
Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He has been a guest on numerous radio
talk shows in various parts of the country, such as ABC Radio in New York
City, and he has also been a guest on the national television programs
USA Today and CBS's Nightwatch.

I
also caution people about the failure to link Saddam to 9-11. While Saddam
did not order the attacks, Al Qaeda did, and Al Qaeda had earlier allegedly
been linked to Iraqis in the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing.